Chapter 1837 Automated hard pipe refueling and hose refueling technology
This set of automatic aerial refueling and refueling technologies is divided into aerial refueling technology and aerial refueling technology. In fact, these two sets of technologies do not have much hardware improvements, mainly in terms of control systems.
Our current refueling technology, in addition to the hard-tube refueling technology that requires the cooperation of the tanker and the fighter aircraft receiving the oil, the hose refueling technology generally has a limited impact on the tanker, mainly on the fighter aircraft receiving the oil. It requires the pilot to be precise.
Control to connect the oil receiving hose.
Due to the influence of speed, airflow, and flight attitude, this process of receiving oil is very difficult, and not all pilots are capable of this skill.
After hearing Wu Hao's words, everyone present nodded. Indeed, the current conventional refueling technology is hose refueling. Because the hose floats with the airflow, the pilot's technical requirements are very high when docking and refueling, so not all fighter jets
All pilots have this skill.
Taking stock of everyone's reactions, Wu Hao continued: "When we develop this automatic aerial refueling technology, we will divide it into two sub-projects for research.
One is the hard-tube refueling technology, which requires the cooperation of the tanker and the fighter aircraft receiving the fuel, which is very technically difficult.
The other is hose refueling technology, which does not have high requirements for tankers and is mainly used on aircraft receiving fuel.
In fact, this technology is very simple. It means that we have added an automatic refueling program to the automatic control system of the fighter aircraft. By collecting and learning the refueling and refueling data of all manned fighter aircraft, and conducting learning and training from it,
Got this automatic refueling and refueling control system in the air.
Let me first introduce the hose refueling aspect. We install a small system on the tanker. When the tanker is approaching, this small system will automatically start and transmit the relevant flight data information of the tanker to the tanker.
At the same time, there is also a positioning device on the drogue at the top of the refueling hose, which will send its own spatial position coordinates to the refueling fighter at all times.
As for the refueling fighter, it will immediately switch to the automatic refueling process. At this time, both the pilot in the fighter cockpit and the operator behind the drone need to stop their actions.
Based on these data signals received, the refueling fighter will control the fighter to accurately dock with the refueling hose to achieve refueling.
During the entire refueling process, the refueling fighter will receive the relevant flight attitude data of the tanker at all times and control the refueling fighter to be consistent with it.
In this way, even if the tanker is affected by strong airflow and changes its flight attitude and speed, the tanker connected to the tanker that is being refueled will adjust accordingly to maintain normal refueling.
This is hose refueling, and in hard pipe refueling, this technology is even more important.
As we all know, because it is hard-pipe refueling, the refueling and receiving aircraft must cooperate more closely, so this system can keep the two aircraft consistent during the hard-pipe refueling process.
Different from hose refueling technology, hard tube refueling technology can actually be seen as the opposite.
Like the hose refueling technology, after the fuel-receiving fighter enters the automatic refueling process, the fuel-receiving fighter immediately begins to adjust its flight attitude based on the relevant data information of the tanker, and then gradually approaches the refueling hard pipe.
When the refueling fighter arrives in the relevant area, the automatic refueling system will control the refueling hard pipe to dock with the interface of the refueling fighter flying to the predetermined position, thereby realizing aerial refueling."
After hearing Wu Hao's introduction, everyone couldn't help but start talking. Some supported and praised, while others were opposed and worried.
Of course those who support it see the huge development potential of this technology, which will play a great role in improving the combat effectiveness of fighter aircraft.
Those who oppose the worry are worried that the refueling process is very dangerous. The two fighter jets are very close to each other, and the tanker is expensive and full of fuel. If the calculation is wrong and a collision occurs, the losses will be huge.
Needless to say, there is nothing to say about fighter planes. They are just such aerial tankers. They are expensive to build and few in number. Even the rich and oil-rich US Air Force does not have many of them, let alone us. It can be said that we cannot afford to lose them at all.
Therefore, everyone has raised great doubts about the safety and reliability of this technology, and some people even questioned him directly.
Wu Hao was not anxious about this, but answered very calmly: "First of all, what I want to say is that our automatic refueling and refueling technology in the air is very safe and reliable. In this regard, pilots can never achieve it.
.
Even the best pilots will make mistakes, but system programs will not. Even if they do happen, the probability is very low, much lower than that of pilots.
Secondly, in terms of safety, we have designed a set of emergency response procedures, which will be automatically activated in crisis situations, such as active disengagement, active avoidance, weighing of ‘sacrifice’, etc.
When a very dangerous situation occurs, if it is a drone, this emergency response system will actively avoid it. If it cannot avoid it, then it will actively 'sacrifice' to ensure the safety of the tanker.
Of course, if it is a manned fighter plane, the pilot can take over control at any time during the entire process.
In fact, we were not the first to propose the concept of unmanned tankers. The US Army had already proposed related plans and conducted experiments.
Compared with their unmanned tanker solution, our aerial automatic refueling technology is more realistic, more in line with the current development needs of the Air Force, and is also safer and more reliable.
This aerial automatic refueling technology can be used not only on drones and unmanned tankers, but also on our current tankers and conventional fighters.
With this technology, the combat effectiveness of fighter aircraft will be greatly improved. Apart from other aspects, the efficiency of automatic refueling in the air cannot be achieved by manual refueling.
Moreover, this technology has also laid an important technical foundation for the development of unmanned tankers in the future. Can we even make unmanned improvements to existing aerial tankers, so as to achieve unmanned long-term airborne services?
This is very important for carrying out some large-scale and high-intensity missions, which is equivalent to having an additional air logistics supply center."
Hearing Wu Hao's words, many people present smiled and shook their heads. What Wu Hao said was too far away, and what they were looking at was the current and future stages of this aerial automatic refueling technology.
practical application.
Among them, what excites them the most is that this automatic aerial refueling technology can be installed and upgraded on active fighters. In this way, all fighters with aerial refueling capabilities can benefit from it.
And many times, it is not that there is a lack of equipment and technology in this area, but that there is a lack of talents with this skill. With this technology, it will be able to greatly ease and reduce the technical difficulty of pilots and refueling training in this area.
This will allow more pilots and fighter jets to have the ability to refuel in the air.
